Broncos cruise to victory over Raiders

It’s been a difficult proposition this season for teams to win on the road on Thursday nights. Then again, most of those teams didn’t have to play the Oakland Raiders either.

Denver quarterback Peyton Manning posted the 70th 300-yard game of his career throwing for 310 yards, a touchdown and an interception and Matt Prater kicked four field goals as the Broncos knocked off their division rival 26-13 on Thursday night.

The Raiders played a decent first half and trailed just 13-7 heading into halftime after Darren McFadden scored from six yards out on a touchdown pass from Carson Palmer with 2:06 left in the second quarter.

The porous Raiders defense actually held strong in holding Denver to just a field goal early in the third quarter despite three snaps from inside the Raiders 2-yard line.

Then Oakland fell apart.

Linebacker Von Miller sacked Palmer and forced a fumble that was recovered by Mitch Unrein at the Raiders 2-yard line. Two plays later, Knowshon Moreno scored on a 1-yard touchdown run to give the Broncos a 23-7 lead. The Raiders went three-and-out on the following possession and Prater kicked his fourth field goal of the night, a 33-yard attempt, to give Denver a 26-7 lead.

Palmer connected with Darrius Heyward-Bey for a 56-yard touchdown with just under six minutes to play, but Denarius Moore was ruled out of bounds on the two-point conversion attempt to preserve a 26-13 cushion for the Broncos.

The Broncos then rode Moreno in piecing together a 12-play, 38-yard drive to keep the sticks moving and run out the final five minutes off the clock. In his third start for the injured Willis McGahee, Moreno carried 32 times for 119 yards and a touchdown for the Broncos.

Palmer completed 19 of 30 passes for 273 yards, two touchdowns and an interception. McFadden carried just 11 times for 52 yards for the Raiders in his first game back after missing four games with a high ankle sprain.

Is it possible for someone to win both comeback player of the year and MVP in the same year?

soundsofsuccess7 says:Dec 6, 2012 11:52 PM

Knowshon is a monster! Wow! What a game, what a career turnaround..

nodindenver says:Dec 6, 2012 11:52 PM

The B’s just keep rolling. December 16th in Baltimore is a big game in Baltimore. Knowshon instead of Noshow will be the difference and we all hope he steps to the plate finally! I also hope the D continues in a manner that lets Flacco realize that he is a long way from elite! Peyton has a great record with the Ravens; just hope the Broncos can step in line.

siknutty says:Dec 6, 2012 11:53 PM

Field goals are not gonna cut it next week at Baltimore. Our redzone offense has to improve. How didn’t we score on 1st and goal from the 1 yard line?

Another stat that should be tracked is how many holding penalties a player creates. Von forces lineman to either hold him or give up a sack. I love what the Broncos are doing!
Villa51 I miss your comments about how the Raiders are a much better football team compared to the Broncos. Please come back. The comment section is not the same without you.

caseyanthonymunoz says:Dec 6, 2012 11:57 PM

Classic Peyton. Beating a lousy team in the regular season. Too bad the guy can’t come through in the post season. Thumbs down all you want but you can’t change the facts…9-10 when it matters. Truth hurts.

I remember that Palmer’s agent once commented “Because of the lack of success that Carson and the Bengals have experienced together, Carson strongly feels that a separation between him and the Bengals would be in the best interest of both parties.” That separation certainly worked out for one of the parties – the Bengals. For Palmer – not so much.

Not getting 7 and settling for 3 in the Red Zone several Ops against a below average D with several injured starters.

Too many sacks given up considering the numbers all year and ESPECIALLY against a team dropping 8 and rushing 3? (Then again – the Raiders Head Coach is the Broncos former D coach – so there’s some inter-species dating going on there)

No Wesley Woodyard @ LB actually made a difference in the LB corp. Poor tackling on several occasions. Need DJ to step up when WW is not there.

Not enough pressure against Carson Palmer and not nearly enough run stuffs.

Weird D scheme all night, like they were expecting deep balls that never happened and letting too much underneath happen without challenge.

Giving up a cheap 7 in garbage time after sitting most D starters with over 6 minutes to go

Pros:

Took a knee for the last 2 minutes and left an easy 7 off the final tally. Class.

Peyton can take big hits, even several.

Team seems to grow and change in different ways every week on both sides of the ball and looks weeks away from peaking.

“Knoshow” is showing just enough and seems to be improving and Willis McGahee might be back for play-offs for a nice 1 – 2 punch.

The Raiders stepped up and made it interesting, but final score isn’t a reflection of what transpired on the field. It wasn’t that close.

Still, the Broncos have to improve A LOT and stay healthy – on both sides of the ball to be the last team standing.

It’s been a difficult proposition this season for teams to win on the road on Thursday nights. Then again, most of those teams didn’t have to play the Oakland Raiders either.
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The reality is that the Thursday night record to date is 4-8. Honestly most of the games have been close.

If you took away Palmers fumble at the two and made that a punt, we could be talking about a different ball game.

Reggie and DA are doing a great job. The team is a series of simple plays away from winning, and the D is quietly starting to come into there own.

I am so frustrated with the Raiders it’s unbelievable….I’ve never been to the point where I couldn’t find some good but this is pathetic. Anyone who watched that game could tell the Raiders were fighting back and feeling good going into half…after DMC’s run? Pathetic garbage with no sense of urgency and the same plays over and over. I don’t get it.

They’ve had 3 games that were just total garbage but they’ve also had 3 games they were up at half and ended up losing by 22, 3 and 10 and one they were only down 4 and end up losing by 31!!! Down 6 going into half, come out flat, 13 point loss (no garbage TD and it’s 19)….this team is so poorly coached it crazy.

rayguyreturns says:Dec 7, 2012 10:57 AM

Congratulations Denver. You bought a once in a lifetime quarterback that probably has 2 years left at most and is one play away (neck) from turning your team back to mediocrity where you can rejoin us in futility. So gloat all you want.

And one other point:
Penalties:
Denver 3 for 25 yards
Raiders 11 for 94 yards

Rayguy about 90 percent o those calls were legit. Stop blaming the refs.

spellingcops says:Dec 7, 2012 12:46 PM

rayguyreturns says: Dec 7, 2012 10:57 AM

Congratulations Denver. You bought a once in a lifetime quarterback that probably has 2 years left at most and is one play away (neck) from turning your team back to mediocrity where you can rejoin us in futility. So gloat all you want.

And one other point:
Penalties:
Denver 3 for 25 yards
Raiders 11 for 94 yards

Now you know why we hate the “regular refs”.
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And now everybody sees why we hate Raiders fans.

Yes. Indeed. Did anyone expect anything different. Jokeland simply can’t hang with a superior team like the Broncos!

Jokeland trolls care to comment?
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Actually, a troll is what you are. Apparently not a very bright one, either.
I wasn’t expecting Oakland to hang with Denver in that game. But I was surprised that the defense played as hard as it did, especially considering how inept the offense is. Not saying they’re any good, just that they didn’t quit.
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samurai3939 says: Dec 7, 2012 11:15 AM

Rayguy about 90 percent o those calls were legit. Stop blaming the refs.
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It would not have changed the outcome, but that game was not called evenly. A QB like Manning is going to get calls a QB like Palmer does not. That’s just the way it is.